Saturday, April 28, 2012

COULD THIS BE POETIC JUSTICE FOR BANKS?

John Banks has some admirable qualities. I respect his
courage and the way he rose above childhood circumstances that were, to say the
least, unpromising. But I wonder whether he might ultimately be undone by the
addiction to politics that we see in so many public figures who refuse to
recognise when their time is up.

TV3’s Campbell Live last night made claims about Banks which,
if true, could shatter whatever reputation he might have for political
integrity. In a nutshell, Campbell Live alleged he did not disclose the source
of generous donations from Auckland-based German internet tycoon Kim Dotcom at
the time Banks was campaigning against Len Brown for the Auckland mayoralty. Even
more damaging is the allegation that he asked for $50,000 from Dotcom to be
split into two payments of $25,000 in an attempt to disguise the donor’s
identity.

Campbell Live pointed out that while it’s not illegal to
accept such donations, it’s a breach of electoral law to list them as anonymous
– as happened in this case – when the identity of the donor is known. And John
Campbell insisted: “The Dotcom camp is adamant Banks
knew the money was from them.” Today’s New Zealand Herald strengthens the
claims against Banks, quoting Dotcom himself on dates and details.

The Herald quotes Dotcom as saying
last night: “John said, ‘Wait a minute’, [this was after Dotcom had
offered the $50,000]. “It would be good if you could split it up into two
payments of 25 [thousand dollars], then I don’t declare publicly who made it’.”

Banks was already under pressure before these latest claims for allegedly
failing to disclose the source of a $15,000 donation from SkyCity. Such largesse
from the casino operator would have been embarrassing because he has been a
vocal opponent of gambling. (Len Brown received an equal amount from SkyCity and
disclosed the donor.) That matter has now been handed to the police for
investigation, as the Auckland electoral officer is obliged to do by law.

That the allegation relating to the SkyCity donation came
from Labour MP Trevor Mallard, who can hardly claim to be the Mr Clean of
politics, doesn’t diminish its potential to damage Banks. And that has serious
implications for the National-led government, since – as the Herald reports – a
conviction would place his Epsom seat at risk and therefore endanger the
government’s tenuous majority.

Both Campbell Live and the Herald reported details that
undermine previous statements from Banks playing down his relationship with
Dotcom. Campbell Live showed video footage of him proposing a toast to Dotcom
at the German’s birthday party and attending a New Year’s Eve waterfront party hosted
by Dotcom, at which Banks and his wife were shown hugging their hosts.

One can only assume the video footage was supplied to
Campbell Live by the Dotcom camp because, as the programme reported, Banks has
kept his distance from Dotcom since the latter’s arrest on internet piracy-related charges. Dotcom might well feel
his generosity to Banks hasn’t been reciprocated.

All this looks very bad for Banks, and it isn’t helped by
the fact that he was strikingly vague, lame and evasive when John Campbell
talked to him by phone (Banks wouldn’t appear on the programme). This was not
the cocky, combative Banks we know from previous scrapes. He appeared to have
suffered an almost total memory lapse when it came to recalling details of his
contacts with Dotcom and the sources of the donations made to his mayoral
campaign.

However you look at it, this is a worry. If he wasn’t being
honest – well, he wasn’t being honest, and he deserves to be exposed; end of
story. If, on the other hand, he genuinely couldn’t remember events that happened
relatively recently, then one has to wonder about his mental acuity and question
whether he’s fit for public office.

All this strikes me as rather tragic, and a vivid demonstration
of the hazards that await politicians who linger too long on the public stage.

When Banks was defeated by Brown for the Auckland mayoralty,
he should have read that as a signal that his time was up. But no, it seems he
couldn’t contemplate a life where he wasn’t in the thick of things. At this
point, Don Brash obligingly stepped forward and, in a spectacularly inept move,
anointed Banks as ACT’s candidate in Epsom. In doing so he may well have
sounded the party’s death sentence, since party loyalists rightly viewed Banks as
a largely unreconstructed Muldoonist.

The scandal now enveloping Banks is highly unlikely to have arisen
if he had not become the MP for Epsom, and therefore pivotal to the government.
Had he quietly left politics no one would have had much interest in pursuing
him. If Banks’ career finally comes to an ignoble end as a result of the
current disclosures, it could be seen as poetic justice for a man who was
pathetically desperate to cling to political power.

About Me

I am a freelance journalist and columnist living in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand. In the presence of Greenies I like to boast that I walk to work each day - I've paced it out and it's about 15 metres. I write about all sorts of stuff: politics, the media, music, wine, films, cycling and anything else that piques my interest - even sport, though I admit I don't have the intuitive understanding of sport that most New Zealand males absorb as if by osmosis. I'm a former musician (bass and guitar) with a lifelong love of music that led me to write my book 'A Road Tour of American Song Titles: From Mendocino to Memphis', published by Bateman NZ in July 2016. I've been in journalism for more than 40 years and like many journalists I know a little bit about a lot of things and probably not enough about anything. I have never won any journalism awards.